Once we got back to base, we had some nice, resting days. There were no terrorist groups near us because the closest one got wiped out by a different base. I took the time to clean my gun and gear, because out in a place like this you need to have everything ready just in case something happened. I was lucky because something did happen.

         We were all getting ready to go to sleep. It was three days after our last mission, and we had just switched patrol groups. I was making sure my bag was all packed with necessary ammo and rations when I heard a high-pitched scream from outside the base followed by an explosion nearby. At that same moment, our alarm system went off, telling everyone to get up and go fight whatever was attacking us. I got up as fast as I could, put my armor on and grabbed my gun. I was the first one out the door with sixteen other guys hot on my heels. Most of the guys ran for the various windows and camouflaged exterior rooms to start shooting these guys. Two guys followed me, and we split off and went up a ladder into a room where we had a 30mm cannon disguised in the side of the hill with a .50 Cal machine gun next to it. The two other guys immediately turned on the radio, listening for coordinates of where to shoot while I loaded a belt into the gun and started firing at any movement I saw. We had been up there for about fifteen seconds when I saw a mortar fire from somewhere farther back, I watched as the shell landed right in front of our garage. As quickly as I could I turned my gun to where the mortar was, loaded a new belt into the gun, and started throwing tracer shells at that mortar as fast as the gun would fire. After there were no more shots being fired back at us, I followed the other two guys back down into our base. Being trained for first aid, everyone in the base was helping get people to our little room where everything medical was stored and the injured were treated.

“Four people hit; I need two guys per person helping them. Everyone else needs to get supplies together and go after the guys that escaped,” shouted the captain.

         “They got the injured guys, let’s get our stuff and get our vehicles,” I tell my Special Ops group as people start rushing to help.

         Everyone grabs their gear as we run out into our garage to the Humvees. We tear off as fast as we can in the direction the fleeing terrorists went.

         “They might have some surprises for us so be careful and be ready,” I say to the guys in my vehicle and into the radio to the other vehicles.

         I knew we were catching up to them fast, but I knew something was wrong. Our problem was that it was getting dark. We didn’t have any floodlights on our Humvees, so I had to make a quick decision.

         “I know it’s getting dark, but we have to catch them before they get back to any hideout,” I say into the radio to the other vehicles and the captain back at base.

         “That’s fine, just make sure you guys finish before it gets too dark otherwise you guys will have a disadvantage,” the captain replies.

         “There they are,” the driver yells.

         “We have ten guys laid in holes on the top of that tiny hill,” I say into the radio.

         Immediately, the gunners for our mounted machine guns jump up to their positions and settle themselves in. They load the guns and aim them right at the enemy.

         “Open up,” I yell out to our gunner.

         Just as he starts firing, the terrorists start firing back. Luckily, the Humvees have bulletproof glass because bullets start peppering our windshield.

         “We need to get out there,” I tell the driver.

         Knowing what I mean, he whips to the side so the vehicle will shield us as we get out. The sniper in my vehicle immediately goes to the front and hides behind the tire, searching for enemies through his infrared/night-vision scope. I run to the next vehicle. They have done the same thing as us, only they are closer.

         “Are we staying in cover or should we charge at them?” I ask the leader of the other group that came out with us.

         “We’d better stay back; they have good cover and we’d just get cut down if we charge them. Our best option right now is to pick them off with snipers and keep them ducking with heavy machine guns,” he says.

         “That’s fine for a bit, but we have to have them taken care of before it gets too dark. We need to just take a Humvee right up that hill and right on top of them,” I tell him.

         As part of my team is loading into a vehicle with me, a couple of guys throw grenades at the enemy while some others lay cover-fire with heavy machine guns. Everyone in the vehicle puts fresh clips in their guns and make sure they’re loaded so they will be ready as soon as we jump out. As we are nearing our target, the grenades go off. Luckily, it was at the right time because we stop and jump out just as the terrorists are starting to recover. We all start shooting at everything that moves. Once we have killed them all, we start loading up to head back to base. Suddenly, shots start ringing out in the night. I see flashes but I also realize that the captain was right about being back before it gets too dark. I see flashes from guns, but I can’t see anybody at all. We all climbed into the vehicles as fast as we could.

         I yelled into the radio, “we have to get back to base, it’s too dark out to fight these people. Set some charges or something and let’s get the hell out of here.”

         One of the vehicles falls behind and guys start throwing fist-sized balls anywhere behind us they could. I knew what they were doing, they were throwing out grenades that went off whenever there was movement within a ten-foot radius.

         “We got guys after us, but we’re on our way back to base because it’s too dark out there for us to fight back,” I say into the radio to our captain back at base.

         “Good choice, we got some Apache Helicopters coming in tomorrow so we can just fly in and blow up anything we can. It's going to be part of a big operation to either wipe out terrorists or confine them to a small area so we can just go in with Apaches and tanks to just blow them up and hopefully finish off terrorism forever,” he replies to me.

         “Good, we’ll be back soon,” I tell him.

         Suddenly, the lead vehicle explodes and goes flying into the air. Shots come ringing out from either side.

         “Contact, contact. We have one vehicle blown, ambushed from both sides,” I yell into the radio as our driver whips toward one side to run over whatever is attacking us.

         “Hold them off, the support team is on its way. A nearby base has been alerted and they can send a team in ten minutes,” the captain tells me as we are nearing some flashes of light.

          Suddenly, we start bumping over things. I figured they were people because there are fewer shots around us. The driver whips around to go back towards the rest of the guys on this side.

          “Go without me,” I yell as I jump out the door and lay on the ground.

          I plan to just lay on the ground and pick off people wherever I see them. As I'm about to shoot at someone, I realize that if I shoot, my guys will see me. The problem with that is then they might shoot at me because they might think that I am a terrorist. Immediately, I put a flash hider on my gun that almost completely hides the flash and changes the flash to a color that my guys will recognize as soon as they see it.

           Once I know that the flash hider was secured, I started picking off guys I knew was terrorists. It wasn't easy though considering that it was an eerie, pitch black with the flashes and noise. I remembered that I had my radio, so I pulled that out since I needed some way to contact my team and the incoming support team.

           “Anyone there,” I say loud enough so they can hear me on the radio but quiet enough that any nearby surviving terrorists couldn’t hear me and shoot in my direction.

           “Yeah, I'm here” I hear from the radio.

           “Good, I'm hiding on the north hill. I've picked a couple of guys off and I have my flash hider in,” I reply to the voice.

            “OK, we got most of those guys picked off. I’ll tell the other guys and we’ll just focus on the south side and let you finish off everyone on that hill,” he tells me.

            Quickly and quietly, I creep around. I listen for any movement that could tell me a terrorist is still alive. Suddenly, I feel a body. I quickly recoil and pull my gun up, but nothing moves. I feel again and I feel blood and bullet holes throughout the body. I then start moving again when I hear some movement. I strain my eyes and see a shape moving slowly against the very dim moonlight. I pull up my gun and slowly crawl towards the moving terrorist. Once I get close enough to make sure that it’s a terrorist, I pull up my gun and pull the trigger in and let it out for a quick burst. The body falls, unmoving.

            I check the hill for another ten minutes. In that time, I hear plenty of shots that tell me that there were a lot of guys on the south hill. I’m almost done checking the hill when I hear the roar of engines that sound like our Humvees. Seven vehicles come roaring from the direction of our base. I recognize three of them and realize the other four must have gone to the wrong spot somewhere in between our position and our base. I cheer up quickly as I watch four floodlights light up the entire area that we’d been in for the last twenty or thirty minutes.

            After we finish off the terrorists, we count our losses.

            “Five guys dead, lost one vehicle,” I report to our captain through my radio.

            “Just get back here, we don’t need any more losses,” he replies to me.

            Once we got back, time flew by. I got rushed through our small hospital for a quick checkup, then on for our burial service for our dead guys. The sun was just starting to rise when I finally fell asleep. Even though we had taken some losses, I knew that I was a step closer to making my dream of wiping terrorism come true.